Gang of Four

Today I learned that Ramona, CA, is a small unincorporated community outside of San Diego which holds the unfortunate distinction of being the starting point of 2003’s Cedar Fire, the largest fire in California history. I happened upon this historical fact while researching a group of four young toughs who referred to themselves as The […]

Treasure Island Naval History Mural

Too bad one of the strangest murals in the area sits in a limited access building on an island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, but here’s hoping a quick snap shot sparks a bit of interest. The painting stretches the length of the east wall in Treasure Island’s Administration Building, a grand […]

Humilidad

Saw this little pencil drawing at the flea market.

While the image on the left seemed like nothing more than a crude depiction of a stoic peasant tirelessly working the land, the accompanying image on the right was what grabbed my attention. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the rough sketch was actually a tearful […]

Head In The Clouds

Last weekend I stumbled on a briefcase filled with what appears to be a collection of contest entries from the International Child Art Center, where Roman children had depicted various aviation scenes. In many of the works were the mention of Alitalia, the Italian airline operating out of Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, Rome. While […]

Gold Dust

Yet more unearthed creations from the mind of Albert Beauparlant. In the artist’s typical fashion, this newly discovered work builds on previously witnessed themes. However, while most of his work was done in standard pencil, the majority of these pieces incorporate hastily applied strokes of color that oddly detract from the stark, yet intricate beauty […]

Down the Rabbit Hole

Living in a neighborhood that’s rapidly transitioning from blue-collar, single-family households to prime fix-it-and flip-it opportunities, estate sales have become a semi-regular source of entertainment in these parts. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sure they’re a heartbreaking public effort to remedy lifelong accumulations of debt, familial strife and general clutter in the space of […]

The Pemp of All

At times we’ve been accused of featuring works that resembles “middle school art” (shout out to our #1 fan, Joe). In the interest of further perpetuating that opinion, we’ve pulled together a collection of pieces that in fact is exactly that. However, what separates the following work is the context and setting in which it […]

Fleet Week, 1919

My last ground-level experience with Fleet Week in SF occurred a few years ago in a Chinatown dive that happened to be crawling with Navy that night. A friend of mine, fried to the hat and hell-bent on initiating the most ill conceived social experiment I’ve ever witnessed lurched unprovoked from our corner booth and […]

39th Yearly Game

I don’t know much about Mark Keller Barnes except for the fact that when he died, he left behind a portfolio of paintings that I really appreciate. Unlike the scores of urban hipsters consumed with replicating the naive hand, Barnes’ work contains a sense of honesty that allows the colors, texture and blunt simplicity of […]

Sears Portraits

Vanity has always been a key element of photography. Probably as much as the desire to document and capture the world around us, photography is fueled in part by our desire to project an idealized vision of how we see ourselves. Prior to the advent of photography, historical figures have always sought to immortalize themselves […]